Pantheon

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Guides : Monuments in Paris,
Geographic : europe, france, paris,
Thematic : monument, old-building,

At the top of Mount Sainte-Geneviève (Parisian martyr), this monument was the church that Louis XV had built to give thanks to the saint for his recovery in 1744. Constructed by Soufflot from 1758, in a neo-classical style inspired by the temples of antiquity, the church was not completed during the Revolution. In 1791, the National Assembly decided to make it the resting place of "the ashes of the great men of the epoque of French liberty": Voltaire and Rousseau were the first to be interred there. Having become a church again, it was not until the Third Republic (end of the 19th Century) that the Panthéon re-established its Republican purpose (one can read on the pediment: "To great men is the country grateful"). The dome is in fact made up of three interlinking domes which allow light to pass through. Inside, the paintings depict events in Christian France. There is also Foucault's Pendulum which proved the rotation of the earth (1851). In the crypt, lie the ashes of great men in French history: military men, writers (Zola, Hugo), politicians, (Gambetta, Jaurès, Eboué, Cassin, Monnet), scientists (Pierre and Marie Curie), etc.

Things to see:
Foucault's Pendulum
The tombs in the crypt

Nearby
The place du Panthéon
The Sorbonne
The animated place de la Contre Escarpe
The animated rue Mouffetard
Luxembourg garden

Pantheon Informations:

Paris, France
See Pantheon on the map